A Night For The Industry

By: Derek Moody
2/9/2016, 9:30 a.m.
Tweet to: @DerekMoody619

The 8th Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards was held in Las Vegas at the Venetian on February 5th. Not many people are familiar with it, and I have no idea why. The purpose of the event is to recognize and award those who excelled within the sport during the 2015 calendar year. Normally, I’d be at home tuning into Fox Sports 2 on February 12th to watch the pre-recorded highly edited version, but this time, I had the privilege of attending it with my entire entourage a few rows from the stage.   

A surreal experience, having drinks mixing it up with mma presidents, fighters, trainers, analysts, referees, fellow writers, and ring card girls. With so many egos, personalities, and grudges all within the same building it’s hard to believe the only drama came via a video acceptance speech. There were a few verbal jabs thrown between Bantamweight Champ Dominick Cruz and our Host for the night, Urijah Faber #3, but that was expected. I agreed with about 80 percent of the winners based on my voting; below is the list of winners. Some categories changed, some went away, and some were added. Overall, I believe they kept the categories of importance.

“The Preacher’s Daughter” Holly Holm may possibly be the most humble champion the octagon has seen since Georges St. Pierre. She’s definitely championship material, always humble and appreciative, even back in her boxing days. Easily cleaning house, the Women’s Bantamweight Champ took home four awards while winning over anyone who wasn’t previously a fan with her acceptance speeches.

Then, on the other hand, our Featherweight Champion who wasn’t in attendance made his presence felt with a video acceptance speech that left all in awe.

A couple of streaks stayed intact and a few ended, some of the active streaks include: Conor McGregor with his second straight International Fighter of the Year Award, Ariel Helwani picked up his sixth MMA Journalist of the Year Award. Mike Dolce delivered one of the better acceptance speeches of the night when he received his third Trainer of the Year Award. Also, the UFC and Dana White both won their eighth consecutive Best Promotion and Leading Man of the Year Awards. When White won his award, Chumlee of Pawn Stars pulled a Steve Harvey on Ray Sefo, President of the World Series of Fighting, which provided a moment of awkwardness, even though I’m sure it was scripted.

Some comedic moments throughout the night included a 30 minute or so stand up performance by Renato Laranja. The self proclaimed 27-time world champion actually is a black belt in jiu-jitsu at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo. If you’ve never witnessed how hilarious this guy is, you’re missing out.

When I spoke to him that night, he informed me that they signaled for him to wrap it up at least four times before Urijah Faber had to come out and cut him off, forcing them to play his exit music. We wouldn’t have minded if he did another 15 minutes or so due to everyone in the Venetian Theatre being in tears.

The ceremony was filled with non stop laughter throughout the night. One of the best moments that caught everyone off guard and caused our faces to hurt from laughing, were the three parody videos. Ben Askren, Johny Hendricks and Rashad Evans all contributed to hysterical parodies. Parody of the night had to go to Ben Askren re-doing Adele’s “Hello,” aimed towards Dana White.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was handed out to a much deserved Bruce Buffer for his hard work and dedication dating back to 1996. In the last 20 years, he’s maybe missed a dozen events primarily due to them being scheduled the same day or a day apart in different countries. If it had been possible for him to work those events, I’m positive he would have. Overall, this was an amazing experience, and hopefully they don’t edit the event too much for the February 12th airing.

Award Winners

• Charles “Mask” Lewis Fighter of the Year : Conor McGregor

• Female Fighter of the Year: Holly Holm

• Breakthrough Fighter of the Year: Holly Holm

• International Fighter of the Year: Conor McGregor

• Fight of the Year: Robbie Lawler vs Rory MacDonald 2 (UFC 189)

• Knockout of the Year: Holly Holm (vs Ronda Rousey UFC 193)

• Submission of the Year: Ronda Rousey (vs Cat Zingano UFC 184)

• Comeback of the Year: Eddie Alvarez  (vs Gilbert Melendez UFC 188)

• Upset of the Year: Holly Holm (vs Ronda Rousey UFC 193)

• Shawn Tompkins Coach of the Year: Rafael Cordeiro

• Trainer of the Year: Mike Dolce

• Gym of the Year: Jackson-Wink MMA

• Referee of the Year: John McCarthy

• Ringcard Girl of the Year: Arianny Celeste

• Leading Man: Dana White

• Best Promotion: UFC

• Personality of the Year: Joe Rogan

• Analyst of the Year: Dominick Cruz

• Best MMA Programming: UFC Embedded

• MMA Media Source of the Year: MMA Fighting

• MMA Journalist of the Year: Ariel Helwani

• Best MMA Clothing & Equipment Brand: Bad Boy

• Lifetime Achievement Award: Bruce Buffer